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LONG-DISTANCE    RIDING. 


BY  CAPTAIN  CHARLES  KING,  U.  S.  A. 
ft 


H  E  long  distance  race 
between  officers  of 
the  German  and 
Austrian  armies,  last 
year,  aroused  no  lit 
tle  criticism,  on  troth 
sides  of  the  Atlantic, 
because  of  the  num 
ber  of  horses  re|x>rted 
injured  or  ruined  and 
the  methods  alleged 
to  have  been  used  to  get  all  there  was 
out  of  the  animal  before  he  dropped  by 
the  roadside,  and  now  another  ripple  that 
may  swell  into  a  wave  of  popular  pro 
test  is  already  going  forth  and  hani|>er- 
ing,  if,  indeed,  it  should  not  overwhelm, 
the  projx)sed  cowboy  run  from  Chadron  to 
Chicago — more  than  double  the  Berlin- 
Yienna  course  of  the  foreign  horsemen 
of  1892. 

Time  was  in  America  when  nothing 
less  than  four-mile  heats  would  satisfy 
the  lovers  of  thoroughbred  horseflesh, 


and  the  veterans  still  prate  of  the  days  of 
Lexington  and  Lecompte  and  ths  glories 
of  the  old  Metairie.  It  was  the  privilege, 
yet  hardly  the  pleasure,  of  the  writer  to 
witness  the  last  great  four-mile  heats  rid 
den  over  the  Metairie  in  New  Orleans  ;  after 
seeing  the  breakdown  of  Conductor  and  the 
pitiable  condition  of  such  beautiful  racers 
as  Anna  B.  and  Madame  Dudley  after 
their  fight  to  a  finish  of  sixteen  measured 
miles,  he  was  thankful,  indeed,  that  it  was 
the  last.  Racing  of  that  character  seems 
but  a  peg  or  two  alxive  cock  or  dog-fight 
ing.  Contests  for  supremacy  that  result 
in  collapse  an\  or  should  be,  things  of  the 
past,  and  it  is  one  of  the  glories  of  the 
American  cavalry  that,  however  often  it 
may  have  been  called  upon  to  make  long 
distance  rides— frequently,  indeed,  to  the 
rescue  of  beleaguered  and  imperilled  hu 
manity — the  trooper  and  his  mount  have 
generally  come  in  at  the  home  stretch  fit 
for  business  and  full  of  fight. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  article,  not  so 


296 


LONG-DISTANCE   RIDING. 


GERMAN   HVSSAK,   LONG-DISTANCE  RIDING. 


much  to  harp  upon  the 
cruelty  or  uselessness  of 
the  other  system,  as  to 
illustrate,  however 
faintly,  the  better  points 
of  our  own.  It  may,  at 
some  far  distant  period, 
have  been  necessary  for 
a  courier  to  ride  four 
hundred  miles  at  top- 
speed  on  a  single  horse, 
but  it  is  not  likely  to 
occur  again.  How  many 
miles  a  light,  athletic 
rider  could  cover  in  a 
day,  changing  mounts  every  five  or  ten 
miles,  was  a  problem  our  pony  express 
solved  in  the  days  before  the  Union  Pacific 
was  built.  How  fast  a  single  courier 
could  bear  dispatches  to  distant  com 
mands,  through  storm  and  darkness,  over 
river  and  mountain,  changing  horses  only 
when  by  luck  or  accident  he  came  upon 
fresh  mounts,  had  many  a  famous  illus 
tration  during  the  war  of  the  Rebellion 
and  our  Indian  campaigns  of  the  western 
frontier.  But  the  problem  which  is  most 
worthy  the  thoughtful  consideration  of 
the  cavalry  leader  is  that  in  which,  given 
a  certain  force  of  mounted  troops  at  a  cer 
tain  station,  he  must  decide  how  best  to 
march  it  so  that  it  may  most  speedily 
reach  a  threatened  point  and  bring  every 
possible  man  and  horse  into  action. 

Illustrations  of  long-distance  racing  are 
few  in  our  annals.  Illustrations  of  rapid 
and  scientific  marches  are  many.  These 
were  long-distance  cavalry  rides  in  the 
best  sense  of  the  term — dashes  to  the 
rescue  of  comrades  surrounded  by  Indians, 
of  detachments  besieged,  sometimes  of 
captured  women  ;  sometimes  a  rapid  rush 
to  head  off  and  overthrow  a  hostile  force. 
In  each  and  every  one  of  these  cases  the 
problem  was  not  only  to  make  the  most 
of  ever}'  minute,  to  get  to  the  scene  of 
action  in  the  shortest  possible  time,  but 
to  bring  thither  the  bulk  of  the  command 
fit  for  anything  it  might  fino.  at  the  finish. 
Compared  with  a  problem  of  this  charac 
ter,  the  question  of  how  to  train  or  shoe 
or  ride  a  single  horse  so  that  he  may  carry 
his  rider  over  a  given  distance  in  the 
shortest  time,  sinks  into  insignificance. 

Many  are  the  records  of  cavalry  dashes 
on  sudden  orders,  mostly,  however,  for 
distances  easily  compassed  within  a  single 


day  ;  but  there  are  two 
marches  that  for  cool  cal 
culation,  brilliant  and 
scientific  handling,  have 
no  superiors  in  our  an 
nals,  and  both  of  these 
were  made  by  the  same 
soldier,  with  practically 
the  same  command.  In 
July,  1876,  General  Wes 
ley  Merritt,  U.S.A.,  then 
colonel,  commanding 
the  Fifth  cavalry,  led  a 
march  that  outwitted  and 
amazed  the  finest  fighters 
of  the  plains  and  drove  the  hostile  Chey- 
ennes  in  full  force  back  to  their  agency, 
when  in  the  midst  of  their  career  to  join 
the  array  of  Sitting  Bull.  In  October, 
1879,  General  Merritt  led  a  battalion  of 
the  same  regiment  on  a  still  more  fam 
ous  march — that  to  the  relief  of  Captain 
Payne's  command,  surrounded  and  be 
sieged  by  hostile  Indians  in  the  wilds 
of  Colorado. 

To  follow  the  first  march  on  the  maps 
of  the  day  would  be  a  difficult  matter,  be 
cause  the  nomenclature  of  the  maze  of 
little  streams  flowing  into  the  South 
Cheyenne,  south  and  southwest  of  the 
Black  Hills  of  Dakota,  is  utterly  changed  : 
Horse  Head  and  Indian  creek,  for  in 
stance,  seem  to  have  exchanged  places  ; 
and  the  five  or  six  tributaries  which  go  to 
make  up  the  rather  sizable  stream  known 
now  as  Hat  creek,  bore  as  many  titles 
during  the  Sioux  war  of  1876  as  we  had 
scouts — the  array  of  Sage,  Box  Elder,  Cot- 
tonwood,  Willow,  Beaver  and  Dry  creeks 
was  confusing  to  the  last  degree.  The 
Indian  name  for  one  of  these  streams, 
however,  was  the  Sioux  equivalent  for 
"War  Bonnet,"  and  it  was  surmised,  at 
the  time,  that  the  frontiersmen  had  short 
ened  that  into  "Hat,"  as  equally  sug 
gestive  and  less  bothersome.  But  the 
War  Bonnet  as  given  on  the  maps  of  to 
day  is  not  the  War  Bonnet  of  the  fight  of 
July,  1876,  but  lies  at  least  thirty  or  forty 
miles  south  of  the  scene. 

In  that  eventful  summer,  the  great 
agency  of  the  Ogallalas,  Red  Cloud's 
band  of  Sioux,  was  near  Fort  Robinson, 
on  the  White  river,  while  Spotted  Tail — 
head  of  the  Brutes — was  among  the  hills 
to  the  east,  some  thirty  miles  away.  Sit 
ting  Bull,  with  six  thousand  warriors  at 


LONG  -  DISTANCE   RIDING. 


297 


his  back,  was  up  in  the  grand  range  of 
country  lying  just  north  of  the  Big 
Horn  mountains,  where  the  commands  of 
Crook,  Terry  and  Gibbon  were  concen 
trating  around  him  when  the  Fifth  cav 
alry  were  sent  up  from  Kansas  to  help 
out.  Passing  around  the  high  bluffs 
north  of  White  river,  near  Fort  Robinson, 
a  broad  trail  led  from  the  Indian  reserva 
tion  northwestward  across  the  intervening 
streams,  traversed  the  valley  of  the  Chey 
enne  a  little  east  of  the  forks  then  known 
as  the  Mini  Pusa  (Dry  Fork)  and  South 
Branch,  and  thence  northwestward,  past 
Pumpkin  Buttes,  to  the  Powder  and 
Tongue  river  valleys.  Over  this  trail,  day 
after  day,  swarms  of  Indians  were  slip 
ping  away  to  join  Sitting  Bull,  and  the 
first  orders  of  the  Fifth  cavalry  were  to 
march,  by  way  of  Fort  Laramie,  Rawhide 
Butte  and  Old  Woman's  Fork,  to  the  val 
ley  of  the  South  Cheyenne,  keeping  well 
to  the  west  of  this  trail  until  we  got  to 
the  timbered  bottom  of  the  main  stream, 
and  there  to  lurk  in  readiness  to  beat  back 
any  war  parties  and  break  up  the  traffic. 

The  advance  guard  reached  the  valley 
and  found  the  trail  early  on  Sunday  morn 
ing,  the  jsth  of  June— just  as  Custer,  with 
his  fated  column,  was  riding  in  to  the  at 


tack  on  Sitting  Bull's  villages  on  the 
Greasy  Grass  (Little  Horn),  far  to  the 
northwest.  Two  or  three  lively  chases 
sufficed  to  assure  the  Indians  at  the  res 
ervation  that  another  route  would  be 
preferable,  and  they  quit  coming  our  way. 
Then  the  regiment  was  recalled,  and, 
halting  at  an  infantry-guarded  palisade 
on  the  Black  Hills  road,  about  seventy 
miles  from  Fort  Laramie  and  near  the 
spring  at  the  head  of  what  was  then 
called  Sage  creek,  we  heard,  on  the  morn 
ing  of  July  7th,  the  direful  news  of  the 
Custer  massacre.  On  Wednesday,  July 
1 2th,  under  orders  from  General  Sheridan, 
the  Fifth  cavalry  started  for  Fort  Laramie 
to  refit,  and  then,  by  way  of  Fetterman 
and  old  Fort  Reno,  to  go  to  reinforce 
General  Crook.  Camping  at  Cardinal's 
Chair  that  night,  and  under  the  lee  of 
Rawhide  Butte  the  next,  we  mounted  on 
the  morning  of  the  i4th,  expecting  to  go 
in  to  Laramie  in  one  long  march,  and 
were  surprised  when  headed  eastward  in 
stead  and  led  on  down  the  Rawhide, 
which  soon  bore  away  to  the  south 
east.  Towards  noon,  General  Merritt 
ordered  halt  and  unsaddle  at  the  cross 
ing  of  the  road  from  Laramie  to  the  In 
dian  reservation,  and  that  "something 


A  HALF  HOUR'S    HALT. 


298 


LONG-DISTANCE   RIDING. 


was  up  "  every  man  divined  when  "C" 
troop  was  sent  away  with  orders  to 
march  to  the  Niobrara  crossing,  twenty- 
five  miles  away  to  the  northward,  and  just 
so  many  nearer  the  agency  where  Major 
Jordan,  commanding  the  infantry  guard, 
had  observed  signs  of  mischief  among  the 
big  villages  of  the  southern  Chej'ennes. 
It  was  no  quarrel  of  theirs  ;  but  the  fear 
ful  success  of  Sitting  Bull  had  so  inflamed 
their  savage  nature  that  it  proved  impos 
sible  to  hold  them  longer  in  check. 

Promptly,  Jordan  got  word  cross  country 
to  Merritt,  and  the  latter,  seeing  at  once 
the  gravity  of  the  situation,  instead  of 
quitting  the  field,  as  his  original  orders 
required,  "closed  in,"  as  his  soldier  con 
science  dictated.  On  Saturday,  July  I5th, 
just  at  noon,  and  in  a  whirl  of  dust,  came 
a  courier  from  the  agency,  sixty  miles  to 
the  northeast.  "  Kight  hundred  hostile 
Cheyennes,  fully  equipped  for  the  war 
path,  start  at  once  to  join  Sitting  Bull," 
was  the  word,  and  here  was  the  situation 
in  a  nutshell.  Riding  away  northwest 
ward,  these  savage  horsemen,  probably 
the  best  in  the  world,  would  have  a  start 
of  sixty  miles,  if  Merritt  pushed  on  to  the 
agency  and  thence  attempted  pursuit.  He 
did  nothing  of  the  kind.  Their  scouts 
and  spies  had  seen  him  safely  out  of  the 
Cheyenne  valley  and  over  the  Niobrara, 
and  reported  him  off  for  Laramie  and  out 
of  the  way.  Therefore  they  could  feel 
measurably  secure.  That  the  white  chief 
could  double  on  his  tracks  and  throw 
himself  across  their  path  before  they  could 
reach  the  timber  fringe  of  the  Cheyenne, 
never  occurred  to  them  for  a  minute — yet 
that  was  just  exactly  what  Merritt  planned 
and  did,  and  he  had  just  seven  troops,  of 


A    HALT    FOR    LDNCH. 


about  fifty  men  each,  to  back  him.  Al 
ways  calm  and  methodical,  he  started  on 
this  soldierly  mission  with  the  same  pre 
cision  he  would  have  displayed  on  a 
practice  march.  To  meet  and  drive  back 
these  scientific  fighters  he  must  not  only 
ride  clear  around  them, — compass  the  en 
tire  arc,  while  they  were  traversing  but  a 
portion  of  chord, — must  not  only  do  it 
undiscovered,  but  must  so  do  it  as  to 
bring  every  horse  and  man  to  the  battle 
front,  for,  at  his  very  best,  they  would 
outnumber  him  two  to  one. 

It  was  just  noon  when  the  news  came. 
Leaving  a  small  guard  with  the  wagons 
and  ordering  the  quartermaster  to  follow, 
Merritt  struck  camp,  sounded  "  boots  and 
saddles,"  and  by  i  P.M.  we  were  marching 
back,  along  the  Rawhide,  in  easy  column 
of  twos  and  at  quiet  walk,  not  more  than 
three  and  three-quarters  to  four  miles  an 
hour.  Fourteen  miles  up-stream  and 
again  under  the  lee  of  the  sturdy  old  land 
mark,  Rawhide  Peak,  we  halted  half  an 
hour,  watered  in  the  clear  brook,  let  the 
horses  "  pick  a  bit  "  at  the  Buffalo  grass, 
then  mounted  again  and  followed  our 
leaders,  northwestward  now,  around  the 
peak.  By  5  P.M.  we  were  heading  square 
to  the  north,  occasionally  quickening  the 
pace  a  trifle,  but  never  so  as  to  worry  the 
rear  of  the  column,  always  the  sensitive 
part  of  a  cavalry  command.  Darkness 
and  we  came  down  together  on  the  broad 
valley  of  the  Niobrara  at  just  10  o'clock. 
"Halt  and  unsaddle!"  was  the  word, 
under  the  high  buttes  north  of  the  Run 
ning  Water  (Niobrara),  only  thirty-five 
miles  by  the  way  we  came  ;  but  horses 
had  to  eat  to  live,  and  we  had  nothing  but 
grass  to  offer  them,  and  not  too  much  of 
that. 

At  midnight  the  wagons  caught  up. 
Three  hours  later,  under  the  twinkling 
stars,  every  man  was  astir,  the  horses  get 
ting  a  good  feed  of  oats  from  the  wagons, 
the  bipeds  a  hearty  breakfast  of  bacon 
and  coffee.  Then  "mount  and  away," 
still  northward,  still  far  to  the  west  of  the 
reservation,  and,  with  the  dawn,  Merritt, 
on  his-  big,  swift  gray,  was  making  the 
pace  for  the  column  as  we  wound  up  the 
steep  ascent  to  the  divide  between  the 
Niobrara  and  Cheyenne  basins.  At  this 
stage  of  the  game  we  were  fifty  and  the 
Cheyennes  some  twenty-five  miles  from 
the  point  where  the  Black  Hills  road, 


LONG-DISTANCE   RIDING. 


299 


A   NIBBLE  ON    THK   MARCH. 

veering  around  now  to  the  northeast, 
crossed  almost  at  right  angles  the  Indian 
trail  from  the  reservation  and  the  camps 
of  Sitting  Bull.  t'p.  to  the  eastward,  over 
the  broad  lands  of  the  Sioux,  rose  the 
sun,  as  the  long  column  came  winding 
over  the  tumbling  range,  and  on  we 
pressed,  hour  after  hour,  until  at  1 1  o'clock 
we  halted,  unsaddled  and  picketed  around 
the  palisade  guard  of  the  spring.  Here 
men  and  horses  had  substantial  lunch, 
and  then  came  the  longest  stretch  of  all. 
Following  close  by  the  Black  Hills  road, 
east-north-east,  over  a  rolling,  treeless 
prairie,  Merritt  led  the  column,  four  and 
a  half  miles  an  hour  now,  at  the  very  least, 
with  only  brief  and  occasional  halts.  A 
more  rapid  pace  could  hardly  be  ventured, 
because  of  the  great  dust  clouds  sure  to 
hover  over  the  column. 

At  sunset,  far  ahead,  with  the  tumbling 
masses  of  the  Southern  Hills  bearing  al 
most  eastward  now.  we  sighted  the  wind 
ing  fringe  of  green  that  told  of  cotton- 
woods  along  a  stream,  and  the  scouts, 
well  out  on  our  eastward  flank,  reported 
the  Indian  trail  in  view,  with  not  an  In 
dian  on  it.  At  8  P.M.,  silent,  dust-covered, 
but  with  every  horse  and  man  •'  on  deck," 
Merritt  ordered  the  unsaddling  of  his 
seven  troops  among  the  bends  of  the 
swirling  stream,  square  across  the  Indian 
front— with  the  Cheyennes  not  ten  miles 
away.  Eighty-five  miles  had  we  come  in 
thirty-one  hours,  without  break  or  mis 
hap,  and  every  man  feeling  as  full  of  vim 
as  they  who  sang — 

With  *>qiiaclrnns  square,  we'll  all  be  there, 
To  meet  the  foe  in  the  morning. 

Daybreak  and  the  Cheyennes  appeared 
together,  and  then  came  their  turn  for  the 


t     "back  track" — the  most  aston 
ished  lot  of  painted  warriors  it 
was  ever  my  lot  to  see.      It  was 
in  the  first  clash  of  outposts  that 
their  young  chief.  Yellow  Hand,  bit 
the  dust,  a  victim  to  the  superior 
prowess  of  our  unequalled  chief  of 
scouts,  Buffalo  Bill — but  that's  an 
old  story.    So.  too,  for  that  matter, 
is  that  of  the  march  ;  but  it  is  one 
%      both  Indian  and  trooper  had  reason 
to  remember,  and  it  was  in  the  con 
sequent  race  to  the  reservation  only 
that  the  Cheyennes  came  out  ahead. 
Merritt's  march  to  the  relief  of 
Payne's  command  should  have  a  chapter  of 
its  own,  and  a  worthier  chronicler.     Three 
troops  of  cavalry  sent  to  the  relief  of  an 
Indian  agent  were   "corralled"    on   the 
Milk  river,  near  Yellow  Jacket  pass  of  the 
Dan  forth  range,  in  the  northern  part  of 
what  is  now  Oarfield  county,  Colorado. 
Major  Thornburg  and  several  men  were 
killed,   do/ens   more   were  seriously  and 
painfully  wounded  ;  almost  all  the  horses 
were  shot  :    escape   was   impossible.      A 
daring  courier  had  managed  to  slip  out 
before  the  Indians  fully  encircled  them, 
and  after  a  desperate  ride  to  Rawlins,  on 
the  Union  Pacific  road,  one  hundred  and 
sixty  miles  away,  wired  the  news.     Cap 
tain  Dodge,  of  the  Ninth  cavalry,  scout 
ing  through  the  Park  country,  got  wind 
of  the  disaster,  made  a  famous  and  plucky 
ride  with  his  "  buffalo  soldiers  "  and  got 
safely    in    to    share    the    fortunes    and 
strengthen   the  hearts  of   the   besieged, 
speedily    having    all    his    horses    shot. 
These  poor  brutes  could  not  burrow,  as 
did  their  masters,  making  trenches  in  the 
sand  and  breastworks  of  the  bacon.     The 
sufferings  of  the  four  troops  were  severe, 
but  nothing  compared  with  the  fate  in 
store  for  them  should  relief  fail. 

On  the  morning  of  October  ist,  a  tele 
gram  reached  General  Merritt  at  Fort  D. 
A.  Russell,  three  miles  out  from  Cheyenne. 
It  was  from  department  headquarters, 
briefly  telling  of  the  situation  and  order 
ing  him  to  go  at  once,  with  every  avail 
able  man.  He  had  only  four  troops  left — 
-A,"  "B,"  "I"  and  "  M,"  of  the  Fifth 
cavalry.  At  i  o'clock  away  they  marched, 
leaving  scores  of  weeping  wives  and  chil 
dren,  many  of  them  in  sore  distress  over 
the  news  already  received.  A  special 
train  was  sent  by  the  railway  company  to 


L  ONG  -  D/S  TANCE   RIDING. 


transport  the  force  from  Cheyenne  to 
Rawlins,  where  they  arrived  early  on  the 
morning  of  October  2d,  detraining  in  the 
darkness.  Then  came  the  busy  work  of 
unloading  supplies,  forage  and  ammuni 
tion.  A  few  brief  hours  of  preparation 
and  such  sleep  as  the  men  could  snatch, 
and  at  u  A.M.,  on  the  2d,  Merritt's  force 
was  ready.  With  the  same  calm  delibera 
tion  as  before,  he  began  his  march  over 
the  rough  and  desolate  country  south  of 
Rawlins,  halting  for  brief  rest  of  five  or 
ten  minutes  at  a  time  in  cool  cavalry  style, 
but  never  unsaddling  until  within  half  an 
hour  of  midnight,  when,  with  forty  miles 
to  their  credit,  the  four  troops  bivouacked 
on  Cow  creek,  close  to  the  Colorado  line. 
At  eight  the  next  morning,  after  feeding, 
watering  and  such  grooming  as  could  be 
done  in  the  field,  after  substantial  break 
fast  for  one  and  all,  the  column  marched 
again  deliberately  southward,  through 
wild  beauties  of  .scenery  they  could  not 
stop  to  admire.  All  day,  from  noon  to  near 
midnight,  with  but  brief  respite,  on  they 
steadily  went,  reaching  camp  on  Fortifica 
tion  creek,  in  northern  Colorado,  having 
made  fifty  miles  over  mountain  trails 
from  their  morning  start. 

Then  came  October  4th — the  same  de 
liberate  preparation  and  start,  no  hurry, 
worry  or  fretting  of  horse  or  man,  and 
this  for  good  and  sufficient  cause.  Seventy 
miles  away  lay  their  imperilled  comrades, 
and  Merritt  meant  to  reach  them  before 
the  rising  of  another  sun.  All  day  long, 
all  the  sharp  October  night,  halting  only 
for  a  few  minutes  rest — for  the  merest  bite 
and  sup, — the  four  dusty  troops  jogged  on 
over  a  winding,  rugged,  rock}-  trail ;  Mer 
ritt  often,  as  was  his  way,  dismounting 
to  lead,  always  "towing"  his  horse  up 
or  down  a  steep  acclivity,  every  man,  of 
course,  following  his  lead  ;  and  at  last, 
just  before  dawn,  they  reached  the  dim. 
shadowy  valley  in  which,  said  their  guide, 
their  beleaguered  comrades  were  by  this 
time  either  dead  or  eagerly  watching  and 
waiting.  Ever  since  the  Sioux  campaign 
of  1876,  when,  over  a  trackless  prairie 
and  in  pitchy  darkness,  Payne's  troop 
had  been  guided  to  the  camp  of  its  mates 
by  the  sounding  of  "officers'  call,"  that 
signal  had  become  a  Fifth  cavalry  tradi 
tion.  Knowing  his  colonel  well — know 
ing  that  he  would  spare  no  effort  to  come 
to  his  aid — and  believing  it  just  barely 


possible  that  by  the  dawn  of  October  5th 
he  would  be  within  hailing  distance,  Payne 
and  his  comrades,  fevered  with  wounds, 
thirst  and  the  strain  and  suspense  and 
peril  of  their  week  of  siege,  lay  in  their 
improvised  trenches,  eagerly,  prayerfully 
waiting,  like  the  besieged  force  at  Luck- 
now. 

O,  they  listened,  dumb  and  breathless, 
And  they  caught  the  sound  at  last. 
Faint  and  far  beyond  the  Goomtee 
Rose  and  fell  the  piper's  blast. 

Then,  indeed,  was  there  wild  burst  of 
thanksgiving,  in  echo  to  the  trumpet 
notes,  soft  and  low,  faint  and  far,  yet 
telling  infallibly  of  the  march  of  Merritt 
and  "the  coming  of  the  clans." 

One  hundred  and  sixty  miles  had  the 
column  covered  since  leaving  the  railway 
at  noon  on  October  2d,  and  every  man 
was  ready  for  action  when  they  reached 
the  scene.  Two  horses  had  gone  down 
with  blind  staggers  on  the  march  ;  one 
died  from  exhaustion  before,  and  one 
after,  reaching  Milk  river,  and  these  were 
the  only  casualties  resulting  from  that 
long-distance  ride. 

Another  famous  ride,  on  a  somewhat 
smaller  scale,  but  one  of  the  traditions 
of  the  old  army,  was  that  made  by  Lieu 
tenant  Samuel  D.  Sturgis,  of  the  First 
dragoons,  when,  in  January,  1855,  a  party 
of  Mescalero  Apache  Indians  raided  within 
twenty  miles  of  Santa  Fe,  killing  several 
settlers  and  running  off  some  sixty  head 
of  mules.  Sturgis,  with  only  fifteen  men, 
was  sent  in  pursuit  when  the  Indians  had 
about  eighteen  hours'  start.  He  and  his 
party  followed  for  sixty  hours,  overtaking 
the  Indians  at  a  distance  of  one  hundred 
and  seventy-five  miles  from  Santa  F£, 
and  in  the  fight  that  ensued  killed  three 
of  the  Indians,  wounded  several,  recov 
ered  all  the  mules,  except  one  or  two  that 
the  Indians  had  eaten.  They  utilized  ev 
ery  moment  of  light,  and  only  halted 
when  the  pitch}-  darkness  compelled  them 
to  rest  until  there  was  sufficient  light  to 
follow  the  trail.  It  won  for  Sturgis  the 
thanks  of  the  legislature  of  New  Mexico. 

As  for  individual  rides,  or  long  dashes 
with  despatches  or  orders,  incidents  are 
almost  too  numerous  to  mention.  One  of 
the  best  on  record  was  the  exploit  of  Cap 
tain  Charles  F.  Roe,  now  commander  of 
Troop  "A,"  National  Guard  of  the  State 


L  O.VC,  -  D/S  TANCE    RIDING. 


301 


of  New  York,  hut  at  the  time  a  lieutenant 
of  the  First  United  States  cavalry,  sta 
tioned  at  Camp  Harney,  Oregon.  It  was 
along  in  the  summer  of  iSCxj.  An  out 
break  among  the  Indians  near  Fort  Bid- 
well,  California,  was  imminent,  and  the 
general  commanding  the  department  de 
sired  to  send  an  officer  whom  the  Indians 
knew  and  trusted,  to  counsel  peace  and 
patience.  This  was  the  commanding  of 
ficer  of  Camp  Warner,  Oregon,  an  isolated 
station  far  over  among  the  lava  beds. 
The  quickest  way  to  reach  him  was  by 
courier,  and  a  dust-cov 
ered  trooper  rode  into  old 
Camp  Harney,  with  or 
ders  for  Major  Otis  to  send 
the  despatches  he  bore, 
with  all  speed,  on  to 
Warner — 150  miles  away, 
over  desert  and  mountain. 
Major  Otis  was  troubled  ; 
but  his  adjutant  put  an 
end  to  the  worry.  Lieu 
tenant  Roe  said  he  could 
get  that  despatch  over 
those  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  as  quick  as 
anybody — and  on  him 
fell  the  responsibility. 
Taking  only  a  sergeant 
and  one  private,  with  two 
da>'s'  cooked  rations 
(hardtack  and  bacon)  in 
their  haversacks,  Roe 
and  his  comrades  started. 
His  orders  were  to  get  to 
Warner  as  quickly  as  pos 
sible,  "  without  regard  to 
horseflesh." 

It  was  just  eight  when 
they  jogged  out  of  Camp 
Harney.  The  first  twenty- 
five  miles  lay  along  the  valley  of  Silver 
creek.  Then  came  fifty  miles,  or  more,  of 
sage  brush  and  alkali.  Once  clear  of  the 
garrison,  Roe  struck  a  trot  and,  maintain 
ing  this  gait  wherever  possible,  went  on  all 
night  long,  until  5  A.M.,  when  he  halted, 
unsaddled,  and  fed  from  the  nosebags,  in 
the  middle  of  the  desert.  A  tin  mug 
of  coffee  and  a  bit  of  bacon  was  enough 
for  him  and  his  men.  At  six,  they  were 
away  again,  with  the  worst  stretch  of  all 
ahead.  No  human  habitation  within  fifty 
miles;  the  sand  fetlock-  deep  ;  Warner 
Lake  water  densely  alkaline,  burning  the 


skin  from  lips  and  mouth.  Yet  on  they 
went,  seven  miles  an  hour,  and  rode  into 
Camp  Warner  just  at  tattoo — 8  P.M. — hav 
ing  made  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
in  twenty-four  hours  ;  actual  riding  time, 
twenty-two  and  one-half  hours.  So  far 
from  being  used  up,  Lieutenant  Roe  went 
on  with  Captain  Hall,  the  commanding 
officer  referred  to,  leaving  his  horses  to 
rest  at  Warner  and  turn  out  for  inspec 
tion  next  morning  in  prime  condition. 

This  ride  was  made  without  previous 
special  training  of  either  horse  or  man — 


CHARLES  F.   ROE   MAKING    HIS   FAMOUS   RIDE   TO  CAMP   WARNER. 


almost  continuously  at  the  "jog  trot," 
through  a  desolate  country,  and  just 
twelve  hours  quicker  than  experts  at 
Camp  Harney  thought  it  possible  to  cover 
the  distance  and  land  the  party,  riders 
and  mounts,  fit  for  another  brush  the  next 
day. 

Another  plucky  ride  was  that  of  Lieu 
tenant  James  F.  Bell,  now  adjutant  of  the 
Seventh  cavalry,  through  the  Bad  Lands 
of  Dakota.  Going  into  Medora,  a  little 
town  at  the  crossing  of  the  Little  Mis 
souri  by  the  Northern  Pacific  railway,  he 
found  important  despatches  for  his  brother 


LONG  -  DISTANCE    RIDING. 


officer,  Lieutenant  Garlington,  then  in 
the  field,  and,  all  alone,  Hell  rode  away 
from  Medora  at  sunrise  on  an  August 
morning,  covered  fifty  to  fifty-five  miles 
through  the  roughest  country  in  the 
Northwest  by  noon,  got  a  fresh  mount  in 
in  Captain  Varnum's  camp,  and  just  after 
sunset  reached  Garlington.  The  distance 
covered  was  at  least  one  hundred  miles, 
and  the  gait  was  trot  or  gallop  all  the 
way. 

The  records  of  the  cavalry  regiments  on 
duty  in  Arizona  or  Wyoming  during  the 
Indian  campaigns  of  the  last  twenty  years 
furnish  numerous  instances  of  long  rides 
of  this  character. 

The  annals  of  the  great  war  have  many 
more — perhaps  the  most  remarkable  being 
that  of  Henry  Kyd  Douglas,  now  Ad 
jutant-General  of  Maryland,  but  at  the 
time  a  young  officer  selected  to  bear 
despatches  for  Stone  wall  Jackson,  through 
pitchy  darkness,  over  river  and  mountain, 
from  Harrisonburg  in  the  Shenandoah 
valley,  around  Massanutten  mountain, 
over  the  Blue  Ridge  through  Swift  Run 
gap,  then  by  way  of  Stannardsville,  Madi 
son  Court-House,  Culpeper,  and  Brandy 
Station,  to  General  Ewell.  then  "in  the 
field."  Douglas  started  just  after  sun 


down  of  an  April  evening,  and  in  a  pour 
ing  rain  splashed  through  mud  and  mire 
and  the  blackness  of  Erebus  over  the 
mountain  trail ;  exchanged  his  gallant 
blooded  mare  for  a  big,  raw-boned  racer 
some  forty  miles  from  the  starting-point  ; 
used  up  mount  No.  2  in  a  fifteen-mile 
spurt  to  Madison  C.  H.,  where  he  swapped 
him  for  a  little  gray  which  stumbled  in 
the  mire  and  darkness  after  a  run  of 
barely  a  mile,  and  could  not  be  induced  to 
rise.  The  magic  of  Jackson's  name  won 
him  mount  No.  4,  who  carried  him  nine 
miles  and  gave  place  to  a  gaunt  roan.  The 
next  stage  was  the  eleven-mile  dash  to 
Culpeper,  where,  in  the  faint,  cold  glim 
mer  of  dawn,  the  young  officer  reached 
General  Dick  Ta3'lor,  who  steered  him  on 
to  Brandy  Station  and  beyond.  Just 
twenty  hours  from  the  start,  Douglas 
found  General  Ewell  and  delivered  his 
rain -soaked  despatches.  He  had  covered 
the  entire  distance  of  one  hundred  and 
five  miles  in  less  than  twenty  hours,  and 
the  worst  eight}'  miles  of  it  in  less  than 
ten.  Delays,  due  to  loss  of  the  road  in 
one  place  and  of  the  little  gray  ifi  another, 
had  made  havoc  with  the  record,  after 
an  admirable  start.  Douglas  used  five 
horses  in  all,  Bell  two,  Roe  only  one. 


SHORT  NIGHT'S  REST  ON  A  LONG  MARCH  IN  THE  BAD  LANDS. 


